How Many Men Does It Take to Move a Helicopter?

Yes, that's the new Life Flight helicopter sitting in the middle of Watson Powell Blvd. in downtown Des Moines. And what is it doing there, you ask? Why would we ever block the street to land for anything less than a real emergency? The answer: to haul this beautiful aircraft into the Des Moines Convention Center for the two-day state EMS Convention slated to start tomorrow morning. In case you've ever been curious how such a feat is accomplished, read on...

First, you take lots of pictures because it just looks so darn pretty!

Then you find a mechanic to put the wheels on the skids. Once that's done, you get all the guys to pull it out of the street, so Des Moines PD can open up a lane of traffic.

Next you use lots of high tech equipment (pillows and duct tape) to pad and protect the blades.

After someone attaches the tow bar, you hook the aircraft to the hitch on the mechanic's truck.

Then you pull it slowly, carefully, gently up the ramp and into the exhibit hall of the Convention Center with men guiding the tail, holding onto the blades to keep them from bouncing and with two flight nurses sitting in the front seats to add a bit of ballast.

Unhook the truck and watch the guys move Life Flight into place!

Mission accomplished!

Fleet Photo

Couldn't resist sharing this fleet photo that I took this afternoon next to our new satellite hospital in West Des Moines. The two ambulances in the foreground are part of a partnership arrangement that the hospital has with West Des Moines EMS and the big truck next to the aircraft is our new Blank Children's Hospital critical care transport unit. It was a nice, although windy, afternoon...perfect for our hospital's photographer to snap some professional pictures. I had to join in!

Re-entry

I couldn't have picked a better day to re-enter the work world after my vacation. Our new aircraft arrived today! So inspite of the 587 emails in my inbox, it was a totally fun day. We had the official unveiling of the helicopter and the Blank Children's Hospital new pediatric ambulance in the morning complete with speeches by our CEO and Medical Directors. There was an official ribbon-cutting ceremony with pediatric transport patients and our own Life Flight pilot, Tim Harmer who was transported by Life Flight when he was a young construction worker, doing the honors. There were refreshments and tours for the public and hospital employees. In the afternoon we flew members of the media around town. It was an emotional day for me. In thirty years of service, this is Life Flight's first upgrade in aircraft. It's the culmination of two years of hard work by a dedicated team who began by requesting proposals from various HEMS vendors, selecting an aircraft and then presenting a proposal to Senior Administration that convinced that our patients could be better cared for and flown more safely in this helicopter. Once approved it took many more hours of work to plan the interior and exterior. When this beautiful helicopter touched down skids today on our helipad, it was like a dream come true. As I told my crew..."I can die happy now....it's finally here!"

Happy Anniversary, Life Flight

I attended my final work-related duty yesterday afternoon. I am now officially ON VACATION! Yippee!! The Life Flight crew and I hosted a celebratory open house in honor of Life Flight's 30th anniversary this year. We did a 2-hour 'come have hors d'ourves and visit with old friends' gathering at the Science Center. There were about 50 people who wandered in and out. It was fun to see former crew members, dispatchers and EMS personnel who have made Life Flight so special through the years. It was difficult to get a good photo of the commemorative sculpture that Air Methods presented us with. It's clear, and I had to lay it on a solid color background so you could read it. Our theme for the day was '30 Years of Success Through Teamwork' to honor not only crew, but also all our EMS and rural hospital partners who begin the care of the patients we transport.


After the open house, I attended the simple and elegant outdoor wedding of the daughter of one of my nurses. I've known the bride, Holly, since her mom and I were flight nurses together back in the mid-80's. She is a very special young woman...bright, personable, enviornmentally-conscious and probably the only person I know with a PhD from Yale! (almost...she just completed her thesis defense) The fact that we share a birthday especially endears her to me! The ceremony was held at the Simon Estes Ampitheatre with the Raccoon River flowing quietly in the background. It was as perfect an Iowa day as you will ever experience...warm, clear, no humidity. In all, a perfectly pleasant day to kick off VACATION!

Tomorrow....France!

Would You Trust These People With Your Life??

Would you trust these people with your life? Believe it or not these are all healthcare professionals...managers and directors of air medical programs across the country. They and their staff take care of and transport the sickest of the sick and most critically injured patients. Last night, tho, they were just havin' fun...Western style! Our host, 4Eagle Ranch, graciously provided an instructor who did a great job getting everyone out there and learning the slides, the kicks and the booty-shakin' moves of line dancing. The band was awesome! It was a most memorable evening...even for those of us who only took pictures and video!

Here's Looking at You From Vail~~

The conference speakers and business networking have been great this week. It all culminated in a really fun social event last night held at the 4Eagle Ranch outside Wolcott, CO. We were bussed in style to the ranch and spent the next 4 hours having a ball! This little beauty was part of the farmyard...a goat family, a couple of pigs, some chickens, and a large corral full of horses. A lone bison greeted visitors brave enough to hand feed him corncobs. 4Eagle is a 1000-acre working cattle ranch; some day-ride outfitters also base there. The couple who run it host private parties, weddings, and groups like ours as well as being open to the public. The ranch contains the original 1850's homestead cabins, a newer ranch house, several big covered porches on barns set up for eating, drinking and dancing. There was a horseshoe pit, a quick draw shooting gallery, and buckboard rides around the homestead. We played, we ate and drank, and as evening fell, we danced and partied!

And what's a Western party without a camp fire complete with pointy stick and marshmallows to roast?

Waving at you from Vail~~

I'm on day 2 of a 3 day conference in Vail, Colorado. Our aircraft vendor, Air Methods, puts on this Customer Conference every year...at their expense. Well, I'm sure the customers pay for it someplace in their contract agreements, but it doesn't cost me a thing. It's always a fun time networking with other air medical program managers and executives and getting to know the Air Methods folks better. Plus, I learn a lot about what's going on in the industry. This year they chose to hold the conference in Vail. The Marriott is wonderful, the food is good and day 1 was gorgeous! I took this photo on a stroll through the Lionshead part of Vail Village. If you've skied Vail, this is right by the Eagle Bahn gondola that takes you up the mountain to Eagle's Nest Restaurant and some of the best skiing in the world. Here's the best part for me: my very special friend, Anne, works right here in Vail and lives a brief drive away in Summit County. She'll pick me up at noon on Thursday, and we'll play the rest of the weekend until I fly home on Sunday. How thoughtful of the Air Methods folks to hold their conference here within spittin' distance of my best friend!!

Mini-Break, Take #2

It's day #1 of Mini-Break #2. I'm looking forward to 4 glorious days to do just what I want to do...no meetings, no nasty emails to respond to, no phone calls, no one stopping by my office to complain, whine, or stomp their feet. Ah-h-h! Is work all bad? No, of course not, but I do relish these days without it. I picked this photo to post simply because I like it; it doesn't have any particular meaning. I snapped it last summer when Edith and I explored Adel, Iowa. Unfortunately, the shop was closed. I was curious about what kind of fine art they sold. What's on today's mini-break schedule? Lunch with Elizabeth at La Mie among other things. I'll also get my passport photos made for my International Driving License that I'll take on my France trip in September. Maybe I'll take a few photos. I love the luxury of not having a schedule and being able to go with the flow!

A Sign of the Times

It's a sign of the times. All managers from my lowly level and up have been 'asked' to take 10 days off without pay between now and September 29th. We had a choice of how to do this, and I chose to do a day a pay period. Because I have a lot of paid time off that I need to use or lose, I've decided to stack paid and unpaid days together and take little mini-breaks. This week is my first. I'm taking Thursday and Friday off; backed up to the weekend, this gives me a 4-day break from work....yippee!! So, this evening I celebrated. First, a masssage after work, followed by a drive home accompanied by the most beautiful double rainbow, then a lovely dinner of stinky roquefort cheese, baguette, huge green olives rolled in olive oil and herbes d'Provence, and a big glass of a chewy, lush Cahors wine. Ah! this is the good life...and I might as well celebrate this unexpected time off instead of bitching about it. I'll plant marigolds and tomatoes tomorrow.

Thursday Update

Just a quick entry to let you know that I should be back to blogging a little more regularly. I've been in the midst of a very big and very painful project at work that has totally consumed my brain...no room left over to be very creative or thoughtful about writing when I get home. Yesterday was the 'go live' date; no big problems or insurmountable issues, but several 'ya gotta laugh' moments as the day unfolded. We'll continue to have little bumps in the road, but overall, it went okay. As much as I hate to blog about work, I think it's important for you to know that the horrible economy is mostly responsible for this past month of pain. I was directed to eliminate part of the department that I manage which meant telling 9 people that after April 1st they would no longer have jobs. If that wasn't painful enough (and trust me, I hope to NEVER have to do that again!), I then had to re-distribute all the myriad of tasks and duties that they do. A big piece was outsourced to a centralized dispatch center in Omaha, NE...long distance radio and phone communications with my flight crew and the aircraft. Not my area of expertise..thank goodness it's theirs! Various departments in the hospital got the rest of the work...a gazillion things. Are you surprised that those departments and their management were less than enthusiastic about assuming more work with less resources??? It's been a month that I hope I never have to live through again!

Quick Update for the Week

...still waiting for our new baby to arrive. Marley Grace is being stubborn; her mommy is very ready!!

...it's snowing here in Iowa today...not sticking much yet.

...work continues to be all-consuming. The financial news is not good; we were warned that there may be mandatory furloughs for managers. That would mean days up to a week without pay. Gulp!

...current 'reads' include Plainsong by Kent Harup and Traveler's Tales France.

...something I learned this week: that Merlin's forest and the Lady of the Lake legends are set in Brittany just outside of Rennes! I thought all those Arthurian legends were set in England.

...blog of my week: Soar-Dream-France. I've been pouring over my France road atlas tracing the course of the Lot River from Cahors east and following Laury's adventures.

Life is Not About Work

I try to keep my job out of my blog. When I read other people's blogs, I see that they mostly keep work separate as well. My friend, Randi, blogs about her kids who are her work right now, but that's different. Those of us who work for a living, a salary, a way to pay the bills tend to blog about other things. It would be too easy for my blog to become a platform for whining if I let work worm its way into it. I have to admit, though, that my job does influence this blog. This past week is a perfect example...I haven't made a single blog entry! Not because I haven't thought about it or wanted to, but because work has consumed every bit of my energy, creativity, and instinct for survival...and not in a good way! My goal today is to break that pattern and find inspiration. It's the weekend! I have two whole days of freedom, of not having to think about my job! I can do whatever I want! I intend to put this time to good use. I'll keep you posted....

Minneapolis on Tuesday

If you called me on Tuesday and got voice mail, it's because I was in Minneapolis. This was the week of the national air medical conference held in Minneapolis. Budget constraints (mine as well as the hospital's) kept me from attending, but I did make a quick trip to the city for some business meetings. I use the term 'quick' very loosely here. It was a 5-hour drive each way and ended up being a 17-hour day for me! I was beyond exhausted by the time I crawled into bed at 12:30am. Good thing I kind of like road trips. The most fun meeting of the day was a presentation ceremony hosted by American Eurocopter. It was a 'thank you for choosing Eurocopter' fete. A marketing rep did a brief introduction, I met the company CEO, Mark Paganini, we toasted with a plastic glass full of champagne, and had our pictures taken. Guess they're pretty appreciative when they can sell a $6.5 million helicopter. For the record, my hospital didn't buy it; our vendor, Air Methods did. I think Mr. Paganini was a bit surprised when I 'bonjour'd' him and toasted him in French! And I think his parting words to me were something about hoping to see me again. I knew my diligence with my French language tapes would come in handy...even if I never get to France again.

A Long Week

This has been such a long week. I usually don't use my blog as a forum for whining, but whine I must today! Not only has the economic news been dismal, the Presidential campaign is making me crazy. I'm so tired of it. I really could simply tune it out, I guess, as I've already voted by absentee ballot. The pundits say that negative campaigning, as repugnant as it is, works to sway voters, but I think we're better than that. Let's delete those email stories, let's leave the room when negative ads come on TV, let's turn off the radio rather than listen to more smear stories.

On top of all this national nonsense, my hospital, for some unknown reason, not only does budget this time of year, but also requires all performance evaluations be completed now. Feel my pain! I hate the numbers game, and much as I like the wonderful people who work for me, giving their evaluations is exhausting. I'm an introvert; sitting and talking to people non-stop all week has totally drained me of all my energy.

I'm in dire need of a glass of wine and an evening curled up on the couch watching "French Kiss" for the umpteenth time. I'll fantasize that I'm Meg Ryan kissing Kevin Kline in a wonderful Provencal vineyard....that should perk me up